1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a support plate carrying indicia for use as a backing with an identification card for imprinting and in particular to a so-called room jacket or card jacket as a backing for patient identification card in a medical facility.
2. Description of the Related Art
Identification cards are commonly used to identify patients in hospitals and medical facilities. The identification cards have raised lettering with patient identification information. An imprint of the patient card are made on a treatment record when a treatment is given so that a positive identification of the patient is marked on the treatment record. This facilitates record keeping and billing in the hospital or medical facility.
It is desirable to track the patient room information in the patient records, as well. As such, the identification card may be embossed with the room number. However, patients may be moved from one room to another, often as many as 3 to 5 times in a single hospital stay. This results in the wasteful practice of the embossed card being disposed of each time the patient changes rooms.
For room identification purposes, it is becoming common to provide a so-called room jacket which has the room identification number as raised indicia thereon and from which an imprint can be made at the same time as the imprint of the patient identification card. One type of known room imprint plate is of plastic with a tab along the top that is embossed with the room number. The identification card is placed on the room jacket for imprinting. The plastic room jacket wears down and/or breaks with repeated use, requiring replacement every few months.
Metal room jackets which hold the identification cards have been used with limited success. In particular, any misalignment of the card on the jacket by rushed medical staff may lead to bending of the jacket, thereby making it unusable. While measures have been taken to cure this problem, another problem remains, namely, the heavily embossed patient cards are warped and do not stay in place on the room jacket during imprinting. Also, the movement of the imprint roller over the room jacket and patient card squeezes them and causes the room jacket to slip out of place and even flip out of the imprint device.
A known room jacket is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,387.